The present invention relates to a reel for winding and storing fishing line or the like and more particularly to a reel that provides rapid payout of the fishing line, for example, as required when the reel is used for bow fishing.
In bow fishing, an arrow is fitted with a lightweight but sturdy line which may pay out behind the arrow when the arrow is shot from a bow. The line allows the arrow, and/or arrow and fish, to be retrieved after the shot.
It is important that the line be stored without tangling before release of the arrow and yet be able to pay out rapidly with little resistance when the arrow is released. Conventional reels which rotate to wind or unwind line present substantial rotational inertia that can interfere with free flight of the arrow.
These problems of line storage and release are addressed in a novel bow fishing reel described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,516, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, in which the line is loosely coiled in a bottle. After the line is pulled from the bottle by the arrow, opposed rubber rollers at the mouth of the bottle clamp together about the line and push it into the bottle under the urging of a geared crank handle. The line is stored without winding in a loose mass within the bottle that nevertheless resists tangling.
An alternative to the above design can be found in conventional spin casting reels, which are sometimes used for bow fishing, for example, the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,107, in which the axis of the spool about which the line is wound is parallel to the direction that the line pays out after arrow release. As the line pays out, the line slips over the edge of the reel unwinding without rotation of the reel or the need to overcome a corresponding rotational inertia of the reel. The line is returned to the reel by a bail arm or similar device orbiting the reel as driven by a crank arm. The bail arm catches the line to wrap it around the reel without reel rotation. Such spin casting reels may be attached to cantilevered arms extending forward from the bow riser. Before drawing the bow and releasing the arrow, the user uses his or her free hand to press a thumb button on the rear of the reel to release the bail arm or fold the bail arm back.
Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 14/270,817, entitled Fishing Line Reel with Rapid Line Payout, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes a bow fishing reel in which spooling line back on the reel may be initiated by a trigger lever spring biased to the line-releasing state but readily actuated by fingers of the same hand supporting the bow. Motion of the handle may smoothly vary the amount of resistance to the line unspooling or may lock the line spool against rotation.